


Random Short Stories

by jontyaxefive



Category: Original Work
Genre: One Shot, Short Story, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 20:53:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21380425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jontyaxefive/pseuds/jontyaxefive
Summary: I'm always too busy with work and other things to properly take part in NaNoWriMo, so this year I've decided to write one short story a week based on different prompts and polls. Most will be original work, though I might do one or two as fanfic. I also have nowhere else to post them, so I'm doing it here even though they will probably never be read.*not all of these are edited*





	Random Short Stories

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt for week one is the quote "You can't see me, can you?"

The house at the end of Cherry Hill Lane had become the object of many dares for the middle school and high school aged residents of Jasper Groves for the past thirty years. There had been different stories over the years about what had happened in the house. One said a whole family had been murdered there, another that a 16 year old girl had been possessed and killed her parents and little sister in their sleep, and still there were more. The only thing consistent in all the stories is that the person who committed the crimes had no memory of what they had done.

Miles stood with his best friend, Patrick, at the bottom of the steps, both trying to steady their nerves.

"What are you waiting for?" a voice came from the sidewalk. It was Robert Wizensky. One of the Wizensky twins that had dared the two to go inside to prove the weren't scared.

Miles clenched his fists down by his side, muttering to himself that he wasn't scared before making his way up to the door and stepping inside. Patrick was just a few seconds behind him.

Neither of them had been sure what to expect inside the house. Maybe, that all of a sudden some ghost or demon or other supernatural force would jump out at them, but nothing happened. It was just an old house with peeling wallpaper and an old smell that reminded Miles of his grandmother.

Patrick pulled his phone out, "five minutes" he said, pushing the button to start the countdown, and then slipping the phone back into his pocket. Five minutes. That was how long they'd been dared to go inside. If they succeeded then they would hold the record for having been inside the house on Cherry Hill Lane the longest. The current record was held by Peter Hermann, who had lasted 3 minutes and 27 seconds.

Content with just staying right inside the doorway, Miles took a seat to wait out the time. Even if there were ghosts he was close enough to the door to get out quickly. Patrick, on the other hand, was ready to explore. He'd always been the more adventurous of the two, a quality that Miles both admired and hated about his friend, usually because Patrick was good at getting him to tag along and do things he didn't want to, albeit very reluctantly.

Miles wasn't sure how long Patrick had been exploring the other rooms in the house, his own phone had been taken for two weeks after receiving two Ds on his report card, until the sound of the alarm, signifying the five minutes had ended. They'd done it. They'd beaten the record, proved they weren't scared, and with that hopefully earned the respect of some of the most popular kids at Jasper Groves Middle School. Something was wrong though. The alarm was still going long after Patrick should have shut it off.

"Patrick?" Miles called out for his friend, going further into the house and trying his best to follow the sound of the phone.

The alarm grew louder and louder as he went back towards the bedrooms, until finally Miles found it. Laying on the floor of the room at the very end of the hall on the right. "Alright, come out Patrick" he said stepping inside and picking the phone up to turn the alarm off. He took a look around, trying to figure out where Patrick could be hiding. The only real place in the room was the closet, but when Miles opened the door there was nothing inside. He checked the room next door, and then the bathroom, and the linen closet. Still, Patrick was nowhere to be found. "Okay, Pat, this isn't funny" he swallowed, and his nerves grew worse and worse as each second passed that Patrick hadn't jumped out and yelled 'gotcha' or 'boo' or something else that would have let Miles know he was okay and just playing a joke.

He searched the entire place, but found no trace of Patrick, other than the phone that was now gripped tight in his hand. It was like he had just vanished into thin air. Was that even possible? Could someone just disappear like that?

A week passed and then a month after Patrick had vanished. There were missing persons pictures up all over the town, featuring a picture from Patrick's Bar Mitzvah party that had been just two weeks before the dare. He was the first kid in almost twenty years to have gone missing, and while the town seemed to be concerned that he was missing, there were still people who liked to spread rumors. He had just run away from home, his dad had murdered him and buried the body, his parents were hiding him in their basement and had made up the story of him going missing for attention.

Miles knew the truth, though. He knew something had happened inside the house that day, even if he didn't know what exactly. Every day he found himself going by the house, sometimes simply walking by, and others he found himself at the bottom of the steps and staring up at the door. He never went in though, even when he felt a pull to go inside. It was like the house was calling to him, wanting him to go inside, and part of him wondered if that feeling wasn't the house, but Patrick. Each time he shook his head, telling himself that was stupid, before leaving.

One day as he passed on his way home from school, the feeling was stronger than it had ever been. Strong enough that this time, he went all the way up to the door. "Patrick?" he opened the door, before muttering to himself that this was stupid. He took a step inside though, calling his friend's name again, not sure if he actually expected him or someone else to answer back. "Patrick if you're somewhere you have to tell me. I'm your best friend and best friends tell each other things." If Patrick was somehow here, he deserved to know it.

"Okay, I'm leaving then" Miles said when there had been no answer or other sign. However, when he actually started to step back out of the house there was a noise that sounded like a loud thud. "Pat?!" Miles went back to where he thought the thud had come from. The same room that he had found Patrick's phone. He looked around. Just as it had been a month ago, there was no sign of the other boy, and just like then none of this made any sense. It came again, though, it sounded like it was coming from the closet. Miles opened the door, but nothing was inside. THUD. There it was again, only this time it was louder. Thud. Thud. Thud. It was getting louder and happening more and more frequently. It sounded like it was coming from the wall in the back of the closet.

Miles didn't know what to do. His heart was pounding and all he wanted to do was turn and run out of there as fast as he could, but his legs wouldn't move. Why wouldn't the stupid things move? Then almost as quickly and out of nowhere that they'd started, the thuds stopped.

"Miles?"

That voice. He knew that voice.

"Patrick?" it couldn't be, though.

"Miles!"

"Where are you?" Miles asked, this didn't make any sense. How was he hearing him right now when there was no one else in the room, or even the house. "Can you see me?"

"I can see you"

"Okay, but where are you?"

"I'm in the closet"

Miles frowned, as he was looking in the closet right now and it was completely empty. "What are you talking about?"

There was a long pause, "You can't see me, can you?"

"No" Miles shook his head. "Patrick, what's going on? How can I hear you and how can you see me, but I can't see you?" There was a part of him that wondered if Patrick was a ghost, but he would have found a body or something, right?

"I don't know."

After thinking for a moment, Miles spoke again, "Okay, umm, do you remember what happened last month? Maybe we can figure out what happened that way."

"I left my phone on the floor and hid in the closet so I could jump out at y- last month? What do you mean last month?"

"Last month. The Wizensky brothers dared us to - "

"Yeah, yeah, I know that, but what are you talking about it was last month?"

"I - what are you - never mind-" How long Patrick thought it had been didn't matter. "Okay, so you hid in the closet and then what?"

"When I opened the door to jump out at you you weren't there. I looked around the whole house, and you weren't anywhere. I thought you'd left, but that didn't make sense. Best friends don't leave each other behind."

Miles bit his lip, tapping his finger against his chin, and making a soft hmmm sound as he thought. "What if you hid in the closet again? Maybe if you hide again, this time when you open the door you'll come back?" It sounded stupid when he said it out loud, but it was worth a shot, right?

"I've tried" Patrick sighed, his voice filled with defeat.

If he'd tried and nothing had happened, then Miles really was at a loss for what to do. He thought of something then, it sounded absolutely crazy, but then again this whole situation was just that. He took off his shoes, placed them inside the closet, and shut the door. After counting to a hundred he opened the door. His shoes were missing.

"Check the closet, Pat. Are my shoes there?" he asked, a slight excitement in his voice. Even if he couldn't figure out how to get Patrick back, maybe he'd at least figured something out.

"Yeah, they're here" Pat said after a moment, "man, you really need to get some new shoes."

It had worked! The shoes were there, wherever there was. His thoughts had been right. Inhaling deeply, he took a step into the closet and then another. "Best friends don't leave each other behind" he whispered to himself before closing the door.


End file.
